Carousel Casserole

Tune me out, I've not got one thing to say

And if amplified, i'm certified to kill a crowd too quickly

Will work for food, will work for a ticket out of this charade

Will work to be more than a burden trapped in revery

My own nostalgic serenades legitimize resentment

Sitting solemn and soliloquized with comatose intentions

So goals impose the throes of woes that froze the nose of statues' foes

And those, well, they're just inaugural addresses for the masses

With every king a conqueror and every queen a sorceress

My inferiorities and by elimination

Subliminal infractions of criminal retraction

But you can't take back the moon I for which even the shadows swoon

As oceans burn and lessons learned turn back their heads to bite me

Topiary Expressionism for the Young and Young at Heart

I was a lie that you told in your sleep

To all your little friends who could never keep

A secret to themselves so they all blew up

Now they're tiny little pieces, you can't get enough, no no

I once was a higher cause

I once held the greater good like a gun

I once walked with martial law

I once kept all my doubts in a box in the bag of a thief on the run

Is this your evidence

'cause I don't need any trouble and I don't mean anything by it

Is this your parliament

'cause your lords are all so common and your steak tastes just like ramen

But we've all got bigger problems now

You were a pebble in the shoe of the sun

Like a shadow on the grave of a less fortunate one

But the lunch bell rang and you're starting to drool

As if our cares were unaware of what to feed to a tool

I once was a cable car

I once was the logo on the side of a lamp

I once was a corporate joke

I once placed all my sins in the back corner pocket of a man who had run out of stamps

Is this your heresy

'cause I do means loads of trouble and you're better off without a suitcase

It's common decency

but I suppose we'll let it go considering your standards are so low

And we've all got bigger problems now

Take me for example

Or take me for the fact

That I will not come quietly

And you won't take me in tact

'Cause I've been shuffled around for generations

And stored in inadequate situations

The temperature in these conditions

May have lead to excess wear and tear

But really that's neither here nor there

I had my papers somewhere 'round here, I could swear

But there's children near, dear, so better not

And politicians too, oh well, let me rot

I once was a valuable

I once was a collector's item

I once held the attention of a so-and-so from oh-you-know

And well I suppose that's all I've to say about that

After all, by now I must be old hat

Barber of the Sphinx

"Not so bad to be dying if you're already dead,"

He must have said as he walked in the door.

And I thought he was lying till I picked up that thread;

I heard it hum in my head as I sat on the floor.

He said, "Don't start with crying or I'll send you to bed!

But let us, instead, begin with this tug-of-war!"

I made some knots for tying, till my hands felt like lead,

And the floorboards ran red and my knuckles were sore.

Then he started sighing about the color I bled

Saying I would not get fed and should now live no more.